Broken
From: Rob (jimjenkins4_11@yahoo.com)
Mon May 1 23:08:59 2006
Hello,
I am a 38 year old male in California. I have been reading this site
for over a year now and get great comfort to know that there are many
others out there just like me. I was born with a duplicate bowel. At
18 months old, I had my first bowel obstruction due to the non-working
bowel strangling my operating bowel. 14 years later, I had my appendix
removed. When I was 18, I had my second bowel obstruction in which
surgery was performed again. When I was 31, I had my fourth surgery for
a hernia. For the past six years, I have been hospitalized at least
once a year for partial bowel obstructions. I am usually in the
hospital for 2-5 days with the old NG tube shoved down my nose to
decompress my stomach and loaded up on pain meds. This year, I went in
on October for what I thought was a partial bowel obstruction. It was
not. Apparently, the scar tissue around my hernia surgery has entrapped
a nerve and I have terrible pain 24-7. I went through the normal route
of Colonoscopy, CT Scan and all of the other awful test you have to go
through. I then started to see a pain specialist in November and have
been put on Vicadin, Cymbalta, Muscle Relaxers and Ambian to help me
sleep. I told the doc that the Vicadin is not even killing the pain
anymore. So, he shot me full of Cortisone and a local solution. In
which this made my stomache problems worse. He then sent me to a
surgeon yesterday. The Surg. refuses to operate. The sensible side to
me understands the reason why- more surgery, more scar tissue. In
addition, he mentioned that if he did the surgery, I could lose one of
my testicles.
My stomach has so much scar tissue that it is painful to
the touch. I am at the end of my rope. I often think about just
calling quits. However, the rational side of my brain would never leave
my 4 year old son and 2 year old daughter. I just don't know what to
do. I am so frustrated as many of you are. I just feel like there is
this code among the doctors that they do not want to do any surgery.
Has anybody tried Accupunture? Do you folks suggest a stronger pain
killer? Should I stop taking all the meds since I feel terrible when I
take them? I am at a loss. Please help.......
--
Rob